An Ornery Mike Babcock Weighs In On Hiller, Lackluster Play

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) An ornery-sounding Red Wings coach Mike Babcock tore down his team’s play, ripped into the opposing team’s goalie, and got up in arms over an innocuous comment on 97.1 The Ticket’s morning show Thursday.

“I didn’t like our game, that’s just from my point of view, the way we played and the way we looked, I didn’t think we looked like that, I thought we didn’t execute coming out of our own zone,” Babcock said. “I thought we were spread out as a group, didn’t play the way we’ve been playing the last 25 games, played more like we did at the start of the year.

“Was that nerves, was that the fact we wore our guys out on the stretch a little bit and we weren’t as fresh as we should be, is it because we exhaled after getting in and weren’t as intense? I don’t know the answer, the bottom line is we weren’t as good and we’re going to be better here today.”

He said the Ducks played hard, adding they spent more time in the Wings’ zone than vice versa on offense. Was goalie Jonas Hiller their key on defense?

“More fans have told me, or people I’ve talked to since the game, how good Hiller was, I didn’t see that,” Babcock said. “What I saw was, I know how our team is supposed to look when we play the way we’re supposed to play. And it didn’t look like that. That’s the feeling I had during the game, after I watched the video, like I said, without emotion, we can be way better and when we’re better we’ll be harder on their ‘D’ and harder on their goal tender — We weren’t hard enough.”

Will he change anything in the line-up? Babcock wouldn’t discuss the line-up, saying only people will have to watch the game to find out. “I’m going to change my shirt because it probably stinks,” was the only thing he would say.

Talking about the two face-offs that ended with the Ducks scoring, host Mike Stone brought up a regular season game against the Blackhawks where a delay of game penalty cost the Wings.

And Babcock wasn’t having it.

“What are you talking about? … Holy mackerel, you want to talk three or four years ago?” Babcock said. “We’re in the playoffs, I don’t even remember this stuff. I’m a coach, my memory is short. We’re playing today, we’re moving on, you have to, too, have a great day,” Babcock said, abruptly ending the talk.